Jumping the Scratch

[1] Eleven-year-old Jamie Reardon’s cat dies and his father leaves home; and his aunt Sapphy has an accident at work that causes her memory to skip.

A visiting author, or as Jamie hears the name - 'Arthur', recognises that the boy is troubled, but the two do not have a chance to really communicate.

He tries to find the magic trigger that will help Sapphy's memory jump the scratch, like the needle on a record, but in the end it's Audrey Krouch, a neighborhood girl who hypnotises him.

Under hypnosis, when he is hoping to learn how to forget, Jamie recalls being molested by Old Gray, a paedophile caretaker at the trailer park where he lives in Traverse City, Michigan.

Jamie's emotional reaction to the incident he was trying to suppress returns Sapphy’s memory, and the boy is finally able to tell her everything.